D-Minus For The Morons
The stupidity that is "intelligent design" gets failing marks from a federal judge:
A Pennsylvania school district cannot teach in science classes a concept that says some aspects of science were created by a supernatural being, a federal judge has ruled.In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Jones ruled that teaching "intelligent design" would violate the Constitutional separation of church and state.
"We have concluded that it is not [science], and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents," Jones writes in his 139-page opinion posted on the court's Web site. (Opinion, pdf)
"To be sure, Darwin's theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions," Jones writes.
Intelligent design claims the complexity of some systems of nature cannot be explained by evolution but must be attributed to a designer or supernatural being.
Most unamusingly, the imaginary friend they pick is never the tooth fairy or Barney.







The BBC website has a heap of comments on this, which may be of interest to readers from the US:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=616&&&edition=1&ttl=20051221090145
What's interesting is the degree to which some commenters don't know what they're talking about. Common misconceptions are (1) that evolution deals with the origins of life, not the origins of species; (2) that education means presenting children with competing material and letting them 'choose what they want to believe'; (3) that ID is valid as a scientific hypothesis; and (4) that there is a conspiracy to supress ID.
Norman at December 21, 2005 1:12 AM
A while back I finally forced myself to do a little reading on ID, due mainly to someone I know who was quite taken with it. More perfectly good time wasted. What strikes me most strongly about the movement is the sheer dishonesty of it, at least at the highest levels. I find it hard to believe that anyone knowledgeable enough to compose the classic ID arguments could believe them.
There is some good info on ID at this site. In addition to critiques of ID, there are also links to debates and pro-ID websites, so you can get both sides:
http://www.talkdesign.org/
All the best,
Charles
GodlessRose at December 21, 2005 2:34 AM
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